ORLANDO, Fla. (CBS12) — A 23-year-old Orlando man was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison after buying diamond studded grills through fraudulent means.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said Zachary Kameron Ramyard, a 23-year-old Orlando resident, was sentenced by a South Florida judge to 71 months in prison for orchestrating a scheme that defrauded California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) of over $4 million in state and federal unemployment insurance benefits.
Ramyard pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in October 2024.
According to court records, between August 2020 to August 2022, Ramyard and accomplices submitted fraudulent unemployment insurance claims to the EDD. These claims exploited programs expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were intended to provide financial assistance to people who were unemployed.
The scheme involved buying personally identifiable information of victims, including names, dates of birth, and social security numbers. Ramyard and his co-conspirators used this information to create counterfeit driver licenses and submitted at least 68 fraudulent unemployment insurance applications.
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Ramyard withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars in unemployment funds from ATMs across various states using fraudulent debit cards. The funds were used to purchase luxury items, including diamond-studded grills, the DOJ said.
In addition to the prison sentence, the court also ordered Ramyard to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution.
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